may call the attention of Congress at its next following session to what may be requisite from the legislative power.

Wherefore, I order that the same be printed, published and circulated and carried into full effect.

Palace of the Federal Government of Mexico.

JOSE MARIANO DE SALAS.

TO DON JOSE MARIA LAFRAGNA.”

And I communicate it to you for its fulfillment.
God and Liberty.-Mexico, December 4th, 1846.

LAFRAGNA.

Colonization Law

Of the State of Coahuila, and Texas.

The Governor provisionally appointed by the Sovereign Congress of this State to all who shall see these presents; Know-That the said Congress have decreed:

Decree, No. 16. The Constituent Congress of the free, Independent, and sovereign state of Coahuila and Texas, desiring by every possible means to augment the population of its territory; promote the cultivation of its fertile lauds; the raising and multiplication of stock, and the progress of the arts, and commerce; and being governed by the Constitutional act, the Federal constitution, and the basis established by the National decree of the general congress, No. 72, have thought proper to decree the following

law of colonization:

ART. 1. All foreigners, who in virtue of the general law, of the 18th August, 1824, which guarantees the security of their persons and property, in the territory of the Mexican nation, wish to remove to any of the settlements of the State of Coahuila and Texas, are at liberty to do so; and the said state invites and calls them.

ART. 2. Those who do so, instead of being incommoded, shall be admitted by the local authorities of said settlements, who shall freely permit them to pursue any branch of industry, that they may think proper, provided they respect the general laws of the nation, and those of the state.

ART. 3. Any foreigner, already in the limits of the state of Coahuila and Texas, who wishes to settle himself in it, shall make a declaration to that effect, before the Ayuntamiento of the place, which he selects as his residence, the Ayuntamiento in such case, shall administer to him the oath, which he

must take to obey the federal and state constitutions, and observe the religion which the former prescribes; the name of the person, and his family if he has any, shall then be registered in a book kept for that purpose, with a statement of where he was born, and whence from, his age, whether married, occupation, and that he has taken the oath perscribed, and considering him from that time and not before, as domiciliated.

ART. 4. From the day in which any foreigner has been enrolled, as an inhabitant, in conformity with the foregoing article, he is at liberty to designate any vacant land, and the respective political authority will grant it to him in the same manner, as to a native of the country, in conformity with the exist ing laws of the nation, under the condition that the proceedings shall be passed to the government for its approbation.

ART. 5. Foreigners of any nation, or a native of any of the Mexican States, can project the formation of new towns on any lands entirely vacant, or even on those of an individual, in the case mentioned in the 35th article; but the new settlers who present themselves for admission, must prove their christianity, morality and good habits, by a certificate from the authorities where they formerly resided.

ART. 6. Foreigners who emigrate at the time in which the general sovereign congress may have prohibited their entrance, for the purpose of colonizing, as they have the power to do, after the year 1840, or previous to that time, as respects those of any particular nation, shall not then be admitted; and those who apply in proper time, shall always subject themselves to such precautionary measures of national security, which the supreme government, without prejudicing the object of this law, may think proper to adopt relative to them.

ART. 7. The government shall take care that within the 20 leagues bordering on the limits of the United States of the north, and ten leagues in a straight line from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, within the limits of this state, there shall be no other settlements, except such as merit the approbation of the supreme government of the Union, for which object, all petitions on the subject, whether made by Mexicans or foreigners, shall be passed to the superior government, accompanied by a corresponding report.

ART. 8. The projects for new settlements in which one or more persons offer to bring at their expense, one hundred or more families, shall be presented to the government, and if found conformable with this law, they will, be admitted; and the government will immediately designate to the contractors, the land where they are to establish themselves, and the term of six years, within which they must present the number of families they contracted for, under the penalty of losing the rights and privileges offered in their favor, in proportion to the number of families which they fail to introduce, and the contract totally annulled if they do not bring, at least, one hundred families.

ART. 9. Contracts made by the contractors or undertakers, Empresarios with the families brought at their expense, are guaranteed by this law, so far, as they are conformable with its provisions.

ART. 10. In the distribution of lands, a preference shall be given to the military entitled to them, by the diplomas issued by the supreme executive power, and to Mexican citizens who are not military, among whom there shall be no other distinction than that founded on their individual merit, or services performed for the country, or in equal circumstances, a residence in the place where the land may be situated; the quantity of land which may be granted is designated in the following articles.

ART. 11. A square of land, which on each side has one league or five thousand varas, or what is the same thing, a superficie of twenty-five mil lion varas, shall be called a sitio, and this shall be the unity for counting one, two, or more sitios; and also the unity for counting one, two, or more labors, shall be one million square varas or one thousand on each side, which shall compose a labor. The vara for this measurement shall be three geometrical feet.

ART. 12. Taking the above unity as a basis, and observing the distinction which must be made, between grazing land, or that which is proper for raising of stock, and farming land, without the facility of irrigation; this law grants to the contractor or contractors, for the establishment of a new settlement, for each hundred families, which he may introduce and establish in the State, five sitios of grazing land, and five labors at least, the one half of which shall be without the facility of irrigation; but they can only receive this premium for eight hundred families, although a greater number should be introduced, and no fraction whatever less than one hundred shall entitle them to any premium, not even proportionally.

ART. 13. Should any contractor or contractors in virtue of the number of families which he may have introduced, acquire in conformity with the last article, more than eleven square leagues of land, it shall nevertheless be granted, but subject to the condition of alienating the excess, within twelve years, and if it is not done, the respective political authority shall do it, by selling it at public sale, delivering the proceeds to the owners, after deducting the costs of sale.

ART. 14. To each family comprehended in a contract, whose sole occupation is cultivation of land, one labor shall be given, should he also, be a stock raiser, grazing land shall be added to complete a sitio, and should his only occupation be raising of stock, he shall only receive a superficie of grazing land, equal to twenty-four million square bars.

ART. 15. Unmarried men shall receive the same quantity when they enter the matrimonial state, and foreigners who marry native Mexicans, shall receive one fourth more; those who are entirely single, or who do not form a part of some family, whether foreigners or natives, shall content them

selves with the fourth part of the above mentioned quantity which is all that can be given them until they marry.

ART. 16. Families or unmarried men, who, entirely of their own accord, have emigrated, and may wish to unite themselves to any new towns, can at all times do so, and the same quantity of land shall be assigned them, which is mentioned in the two last articles, but if they do so within the first six years from the establishment of the settlement, one labor more shall be given to families; and single men, in place of the quarter designated in the 15th article, shall have the third part.

ART. 17. It appertains to the government to augment the quantity indicated in the 14th, 15th, and 16th articles, in proportion to the family industry, and activity of the colonists, agreeably to the information given on these subjects by the Ayuntamientos and Commissioners; the said government always observing the provisions of the 12th article, of the decree of the general congress on the subject.

ART. 18. The families who emigrate in conformity with the 16th article, shall immediately present themselves to the political authority of the place which they may have chosen for their residence, who finding in them the requisites, prescribed by this law for new settlers, shall admit them, and put them in possession of the corresponding lands, and shall immediately give an account thereof to the government; who of themselves, or by means of a person commissioned to that effect, will issue them a title.

ART. 19. The Indians of all nations, bordering on the state, as well as wandering tribes that may be within its limits, shall be received in the markets, without paying any duties whatever for commerce, in the products of the country; and if attracted by the moderation and confidence, with which they shall be treated, any of them, after having first declared themselves in favor of our religion and institutions, wish to establish themselves in any settlements that are forming, they shall be admitted, and the same quantity of land given them, as to the settlers spoken of in the 14th and 15th articles, always preferring native Indians to strangers.

ART. 20. In order that there may be no vacancies between tracts, of which great care shall be taken in the distribution of lands; it shall be laid off in squares, or other forms although irregular, if the local situation requires it; and in said distribution, as well as the assignation of lands for new towns, previous notice shall be given to the adjoining proprietors, if any, in order to prevent dissentions and law suits.

ART. 21. If by error in the concession, any land shall be granted, belonging to another, on proof being made of that fact, an equal quantity shall be granted elsewhere, to the person who may have thus obtained it through error, and he shall be indemnified by the owner of such land, for any improvements he may have made; the just value of which improvements, shall be ascertained by appraisers.

ART. 22. The new settlers, as an acknowledgement, shall pay to the state, for each sitio of pasture land, thirty dollars; two dollars and a half, for each labor without the facility of irrigation, and three dollars and a half, for each one that can be irrigated, and so on proportionally, according to the quantity and quality of the land distributed; but the said payments neel not be made until six years after the settlement, and by thirds; the first within four years, the second within five years, and the last within six years under the penalty of losing the land, for a failure in any of said payments; are excepted from this payment, the contractors, and military, spoken of in the 10th article; the former, with respect to lands given them, as a premium, and the latter, for those which they obtained, in conformity with their diplomas.

ART. 23. The Ayuntamientos of each municipality (Comarca,) shall collect the above mentioned funds, gratis, by means of a committee, appointed either within or without their body; and shall remit them as they are collected, to the treasurer of their funds, who will give the corresponding receipt, and without any other compensation than two and a half per cent. all that shall be allowed him, he shall hold them at the disposition of the government, rendering an account every month of the ingress and egress, and of any remissness or fraud, which he may observe in their collection; for the correct management of all which, the person employed, and the committee, and the individuals of the Ayuntamientos who appoint them, shall be individually responsible, and that this responsibility may be at all times effectual, the said appointments shall be made viva voce, and information shall be given thereof immediately to the government.

ART. 24. The government will sell to Mexicans and to them only, such lands as they may wish to purchase, taking care that there shall not be accumulated in the same hands more than eleven sitios; and under the condition, that the purchaser must cultivate what he acquires by this title, within six years from its acquisition, under the penalty of losing them; the price of each sitio, subject to the foregoing condition, shall be one hundred dollars, if it be pasture land; one hundred and fifty dollars, if it be farming land without the facility of irrigation; and two hundred and fifty dollars if it can be irrigated.

ART. 25. Until six years after the publication of this law, the legislature of this state, cannot alter it as regards the acknowledgement, and price to be paid for land, or as regards the quantity and quality, to be distributed to the new settlers, or sold to Mexicans.

ART. 26. The new settlers, who within six years from the date of the possession, have not cultivated or occupied the lands granted to them, according to its quality, shall be considered to have renounced them, and the respective political authority, shall immediately proceed to take possession of them, and recall the titles.